Bradford Cox has in the past cited fellow Athens, Ga., natives R.E.M. as a model — spiritually, if not so much sonically — for, as he put it to Buzzfeed recently, the sort of “great American rock ‘n’ roll band” he’d like Deerhunter to become.

Deerhunter is getting there. With its spectacular sixth album, Monomania, in fact, the prickly quintet makes a good case for itself as the most consistently interesting and expectation-defying outfit to emerge from Athens since R.E.M. bubbled up from the college-rock underground during the early 1980s, and certainly as one of the most compelling artistic forces in contemporary American indie-rock. One of the most prolific, too; it’s almost a full-time job keeping up with the mountains of material Cox continually cranks out with Deerhunter or on his own as Atlas Sound.

On 2010’s hard-to-shake Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter allowed a little more air and Everly Brothers-esque sweetness into its sound, largely exchanging overdrive for mutant-garage spaciness. Monomania keeps the same primitivist, early rock-‘n’-roll feel, but scuffs and snarls it up to far more rancorous extremes. Sneering openers “Neon Junkyard” and “Leather Jacket II” smear every available space in the mix with filthy lo-fi noise, while the scuzzy blues-rock of “Pensacola” could be a lost ‘60s recording by a particularly deranged pack of ’60s Rolling Stones acolytes. The title track, for its part, is a shrieking, spark-spitting ode to Cox’s obsessive tendencies that, appropriately, melts down into the sound of a motorcycle revving.

It’s cacophonous, ugly, messed-up stuff, but Cox — as well as longtime guitarist Lockett Pundt, who contributes a frisson-inducing bit of old-school Deerhunter dream-pop in “The Missing” — isn’t so much of a contrarian that he’s averse to hooks. Nor is he averse to moments of pure, pillowy prettiness. “Dream Captain” and “Back to the Middle,” for instance, make deliciously sugary sport of longing and self-loathing and instantly stake out spots deep inside your permanent consciousness. You’ll be drawn back for more almost right away, and you’ll find more waiting for you every time. Definitely one of 2013’s finest so far.

Monomania is officially released on May 7 but can be streamed at the moment on the Exclaim! and NPR websites.

DOWNLOAD: “Monomania.” Sounds like a mental disorder.

Ben Rayner

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